Hop Picking Pictures
Celebrating Hop Picking Season and the launch of the new Truman’s Brewery this week, it is my pleasure to publish this selection of favourite Hop Picking Pictures from the archive of Tower Hamlets Community Housing. Traditionally, this was the time when East Enders headed down to the Hop Farms, embracing the opportunity of a breath of country air and earning a few bob too.
Bill Brownlow, Margie Brownlow, Terry Brownlow & Kate Milchard, with Keith Brownlow & Kevin Locke in front, at Guinness’ Northland’s Farm at Bodiam, Sussex, in 1958. Guinness bought land at Bodiam in 1905 and eight hundred acres were devoted to hop growing at its peak.
Julie Mason, Ted Hart, Edward Hart & friends at Hoathleys Farm, Hook Green, near Lamberhurst, Kent
Lou Osbourn, Derek Protheroe & Kate Day at Goudhurst Farm
Margie Brownlow & Charlie Brownlow with Keith Brownlow, Kate Milchard & Terry Brownlow in front at Guinness’ Northland’s Farm at Bodiam, Sussex, in 1950
Mr & Mrs Gallagher with Kitty Adams & Jackie Gallagher from Westport St, Stepney, in the hop gardens at Pembles Farm, Five Oak Green, Kent in 1959
Jackie Harrop, Joan Day & George Rogers at Whitbread’s Farm, Beltring, Kent in 1949
Mag Day (on the left at the back) in the hop gardens with others at Highwood’s Farm, Collier St, in 1938
Pop Harrop at Whitbread’s Farm, Beltring, Kent in 1949
Sarah Watt, Mrs Hopkins, Steven Allen, Ann Allen, Tom, Albert Allen & Sally Watt in the hop gardens at Jack Thompsett’s Den Farm, Collier St, Kent in 1943
Harry Watt, Tom Shuffle, Mary Shuffle, Sally Watt, Julie Callagher, Ada Watt & Sarah Watt in the hop gardens at Jack Thompsett’s Den Farm, Collier St, Kent in the fifties
Harry Watt, Sally Watt, Sarah Watt holding Terry Ellames in the hop gardens at Jack Thompsett’s Den Farm, Collier St, Kent in 1957
Harry Ayres, a pole puller, in the hop gardens at Diamond Place Farm, Nettlestead, Kent
Emmie Rist, Theresa Webber, Kit Webber & Eileen Ayres in the hop gardens at Diamond Place Farm, Nettlestead, Kent
Kit Webber with her Aunt Mary, her Dad Sam Webber and her Mum, Emmie Ris,t in the hop gardens at Diamond Place Farm, Nettlestead, Kent
Harry Ayres with his wife Kit Webber in the hop gardens at Diamond Place Farm, Nettlestead, Kent.
Richard Pyburn, Mag Day, Patty Seach and Kitty Gray from Kirks Place, Limehouse, in the hop gardens at Highwoods Farm, Collier St, Kent
The Gorst and Webber families at Jack Thompsett’s Farm, Fowle Hall, Kent in the forties
Kitty Waters with sons Terry & John outside the huts at Pembles Farm, Five Oak Green, Kent in 1952
Mr & Mrs Gallagher from Westport St, Stepney, with their grandchildren in the hop gardens at Pembles Farm, Five Oak Green, Kent in 1958
Sybil Ogden, Doris Cossey, Danny Tyrrell & Sally Hawes near Yalding, Kent
John Doree, Alice Thomas, Celia Doree & Mavis Doree in the hop gardens near Cranbrook, Kent
Bill Thomas & his wife Annie, in the hop gardens near Cranbrook, Kent
The Castleman Family from Poplar hop picking in the twenties
Terry & Margie Brownlow at Guinness’ Northland’s Farm at Bodiam in Sussex in 1949
Alfie Raines, Johnny Raines, Charlie Cushway, Les Benjamin & Tommy Webber in the Hop Gardens at Jack Thompsett’s Farm at Fowl Hall near Paddock Wood in Kent
Lal Outram, Wag Outram & Mary Day on the common at Jack Thompsett’s Farm at Fowl Hall near Paddock Wood in Kent in 1955
Sally Watt’s Hop Picker’s account book from Jack Thompsett’s Den Farm, Collier St, Kent in the fifties
You can download hop picking booklets published by Tower Hamlets Community Housing
Readers are invited to the opening of the New Truman’s Brewery, 2-3 Stour Rd, Hackney Wick, E2 2NT, this Saturday 14th September 2pm – 10pm with Opening Ceremony at 4pm
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That was a lovely start to my day to see the hop-pickers photos.
I have a treasured photo of my Dad, Len, aged about 4 years with his Mother, Ellen HUNT, brother Albert, sisters Martha [Pat], Winnie and possibly Nell. They all came from Poplar and the photo would have been taken about 1910, in Kent.
Ah, the days when Whitbread actually brewed drinkable BEER, & weren’t a rip-off property company …..
Fascinating. I was born in 1944, to a family from Forest Gate but living in Southend. Every summer we would travel to Dover by train through the hop gardens. I have vivid memories of the poles, the bines and the pickers.
oh my, wonderful pictures.
Have you heard The Albion Band and ‘Hopping Down in Kent’ on You Tube? I recommend it to go with the photos.
Congratulations to all involved in the New Brewery resurrected.
Jean
Thanks for including these pics….
If anyone has any photos or hop picking stories to tell, we’d love to hear them… Please email thch@thch.org.uk with your details and we will get back to you…
Great pictures. How can I get copies. There’s one of my Grandad that I’ve never seen before.
What lovely photos, brings back memories of happy times.
I have never seen that photo of my Grandad,just like my sister Joan who posted above.
Also not seen the one of me (although the name is Jacqueline not Jackie) with my Aunt and uncle.
Where did the photos come from???
Went there every year from 1946 with my mum Mary &nan & all the family went fishing down the rainbow. Luscombe family
Great on the big common the shop opposite the orchard in the lane over the little bridge on to the common watts huts on the left we was on the far right side I new Sally &charlie and snowball. Who I used play games and go to the prince or woolpack
Just Wonderful…Thank You.
I was born in 1944 and remember hop picking as the best days of my life, we had a ‘Hut’ on the Guinness camp site known as The Ridge. Can any one tell me why Sussex and Kent bins were different in construction?
I remember hop picking when i was a little one with my brothers, washing at the tap at the bottom of the field, swimming in the lake with the rats lol
Great time
karen cushway
Charlie Cushway was my dad’s brother and lal outram was my nanny, lovely women can never forget her. god bless
I loved it too . My mum used to take my brother and I from London to a farm in Maidstone Kent on a steam train and we stayed the 6 weeks and lived in huts and cooked outside on an old army oven set on bricks.
All of us kids went ‘scrumping’, it was great.
Can anybody help me find the field where we stayed whilst hop picking in Yalding, I believe. My parents were (big) Cath and H Hillier my brother was Mark. I am also called (little) Cath. I remember Joan and George, Pat and Wolly who had a son Nicky and I think Pat and George. This was around the mid 1960’s. I remember swimming in a river and having the time of my life. There is only me and my brother left and do not know how I can find out what farm we worked for. I was told by my dad H (Harry), before he passed, that some of the huts were still there and I would love to visit? I remember something about driving down seven mile lane to get there?
O my God how I loved hop picking for all children it was a dream holiday at night two men came round selling cups of bovril I used to ride on the farmers tractor such fun.